For the first time in quite awhile, the Rocky Mountain Alliance has started to grow again. We have two new members who represent excellent additions. I invite you to check them out and add them to your regular blog reading (if you haven’t already):
The Business Word by Don Johnson has become a must-read for anyone seeking coverage of the unfolding major Republican primary races in Colorado, with great analysis and interviews
Michelle Morin is a leader in the Teller County Tea Party movementCoalition for a Conservative Majority in Colorado Springs, and her site Mom 4 Freedom has been a leading Colorado-based voice in the fight against Obama Care and other proposed costly government intrusions into our freedom
This morning I had the opportunity to follow up on this week’s Colorado political bombshell with the man at the center of the storm: state senate minority leader Josh Penry, of whom word leaked Monday that he had decided to withdraw from the Republican primary campaign for governor.
As a personal supporter of Penry’s candidacy and seeing evidence of his tremendous support among Colorado’s grassroots Republicans, I was greatly shocked and disappointed. In fact, it’s safe to say I’m still reeling from the revelation. Anyway, without further ado, here’s a quick recap of my interview this morning (please note that the following is somewhat excerpted and a close paraphrase rather than a direct quote): (more…)
A new story from the files of government authority run amok…
Following shortly on the heels of the Michigan woman harassed by social services for watching some neighbor kids before they catch the school bus, comes a doozy from Nevada. Vin Suprynowicz recounts the story of Delinda Epstein’s costly brush with the County Transportation Authority when she tried to make private arrangements to drive someone to the airport.
Read this story and ask yourself: Is it anything but common sense to insist on limiting the size and scope of government?
A lot of people are looking at the Virginia governor’s race — or even the New York 23 race — as a belwether of conservative, limited government political sentiment and activism going into the 2010 midterm elections.
Me? I’m looking at a ballot initiative in Maine that would institute tax and spending limits similar to those in Colorado. As Question 4 trails in the polls, citizen activists have uncovered opponents using legislative resources to promote pay-to-play scheme. Enough to turn the tide? Perhaps, but not likely given conventional political wisdom.
But what might be interesting to see is if the 2009 version generates any late momentum or outperforms the 2006 Maine Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, that lost 54-46. It might offer us a hint of how much staying power there is to the Tea Party movement. In the meantime, you can watch former Colorado Commissioner of Education William Moloney quickly debunking the myth that TABOR has destroyed the schools in our state: (more…)
So what should Republican politicians and candidates learn from these results? I mean, besides the fact that it’s hard to make too much sense out of what a wide sample of voters are thinking. Rather than come up with a cogent analysis, I decided to throw out some quick hits: (more…)
This past week, WINS organized and held a budget information meeting at the unemployment office. There was some budget guy from the state, there, along with a couple of union thugs. After the budget guy showed us the state of the state economy, a union guy got up and started soliciting for members. “We need to organize in our communities and in our offices.”
WINS used a formal budget information format to seek membership. THIS IS INAPPROPRIATE USE OF GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS!(more…)
All politics is local, right? Mail ballot municipal elections already are underway, so late last week I decided it was finally time to ask the Arvada city council candidates on my ballot what they think of the idea of detailed financial transparency. Below I’ve pasted the message I emailed to the two at-large candidates and the two district candidates and what I learned: (more…)
Update, 10/14:Here’s a (substantially) complete worldwide listing of all the premiere showings of “Not Evil Just Wrong” — looks like there is only one other showing in Colorado, and that’s down in the Springs. Don’t miss this one!
Join the resistance against extreme environmentalism that threatens the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people in the developed and developing world. This will be a record-setting, international Cinematic Tea Party!
Watch the compelling trailer about the human cost of “climate change” hysteria (of course, there’s the broader economic cost, too):
I had the opportunity earlier this year to watch a sneak preview presentation by the Irish filmmakers. I was truly impressed, and have been looking forward to the premiere ever since. Hope you can make it on October 18!
I’d like to take the opportunity this morning to thank ACORN — Say what? Yes, thank ACORN … not only for exposing your own corruption but also for helping to remind us that the federal government is overflowing in tax dollars far beyond any rational sense to redistribute the money in any sensible (much less constitutional) way and that one hand of the D.C. bureaucratic monster scarcely knows what the other is doing. From today’s Washington Times:
Nearly $1 million in Homeland Security funding typically earmarked for fire departments has been awarded to ACORN, despite a clear signal from Congress that it intends to cut off federal funding to the embattled group.
Yesterday I brought to your attention the fact that Colorado Governor Bill Ritter publicly thanked the Independence Institute — and speaking of thanks, thankfully no one (to the best of my knowledge) was hurt from overreacting to the shock while driving a vehicle or operating heavy machinery. Read Jessica Corry’s new piece in the Denver section of the Huffington Post to find out exactly what sort of ethical shortcoming Bill Ritter had:
Ahh, wouldn’t it be nice? When you fail to comply with a law, just rewrite it. This is the strategy of Gov. Bill Ritter, a Colorado Democrat and former elected district attorney, who was questioned publicly this week after failing to enforce a major ethics executive order.
Under the mandate, put into place by previous Gov. Bill Owens, all members of a governor’s cabinet and senior staff must submit annual conflicts of interest reports. This means that at least 30 reports should have been filed nearly three years into Ritter’s tenure. But a little recent digging by the Independence Institute, where I am a policy analyst, has revealed that just one such report was ever filed.
For nearly three years, Bill Ritter has had the choice to:
Follow the 1999 executive order
Rescind the 1999 executive order
Ignore the 1999 executive order
And he chose door number three. Sad that it took a dose of public shame for Bill Ritter to finally do the right thing. Bad advice? Bad judgment? Poor ethics? Whatever the case, this scenario offers another instance of Ritter failing to provide strong leadership. The clock is ticking down to the 2010 election … can’t get here soon enough.
It’s October, and the health care debate presses on. Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee joined Republicans to vote down the so-called “public option”; meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has adamantly come out stating that health care reform indeed will take the big step toward a government takeover.
Against this backdrop of events are two great new columns you should read:
Just two of the many Coloradans speaking up loudly and clearly for individual rights and medical sanity — of course, don’t forget to continue checking out the Patient Power blog, too.
Some of my Independence Institute colleagues have taken the show north of the border, organizing a conference to introduce journalists to the real-life stories of Canadians adversely affected by their government health care system’s painfully long waiting lists. Great coverage in the Los Angeles Times (shock!) and Washington Times.
If you’re a concerned citizen who wants to get active in the political process and you’re anywhere around the south Denver metro area tomorrow evening (Thursday, September 24), check out the R Block Party meeting at Littleton’s Bemis Public Library.
Last week I pointed out that financial concerns might end up pushing the Colorado Springs Gazette to abandon its longstanding position as a beacon of limited government, personal liberty, and fiscal sanity. Well, buckle up, because it’s started happening really quickly.
Witness today’s Gazette editorial co-signed by publisher Steven Pope and John Weiss, publisher of the Lefty Colorado Springs Independent, pulling out the big scare to support a tax hike on the city’s ballot.
